'Wheel of Fortune' Contestant Gets Epic Win

Emil de Leon stunned viewers Wednesday night when he correctly guessed the answer to the word puzzle with only two out of the 12 letters for a hint. On the board was an "N" and an "E" and de Leon accurately answered "new baby buggy." A technical delay didn't instantly reveal that he was right, so he kept on guessing frantically as his 10 seconds ticked by. Eventually the board lit up with the completed answer, and de Leon discovered that he won $45,000.

Emil de Leon stunned viewers Wednesday night when he correctly guessed the answer to the word puzzle with only two out of the 12 letters for a hint. On the board was an "N" and an "E" and de Leon accurately answered "new baby buggy." A technical delay didn't instantly reveal that he was right, so he kept on guessing frantically as his 10 seconds ticked by. Eventually the board lit up with the completed answer, and de Leon discovered that he won $45,000.

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Host Pat Sajak called this victory the "most amazing solve in my 30+ years on the show." But The Washington Post has suggested that it was less a lucky guess on de Leon's part, and more a work of intellect. "The only three-letter word besides 'new' that starts with 'ne' and doesn't end with one of the ruled-out letters is the obscure 'neb,'" Caitlin Dewey wrote. From there, de Leon had to run through the remaining options to work out the final two words, but by using common sense and eliminating rarely used ones, he was left with only 53 possible choices, most bordering on gibberish with the exception of "baby" and "buggy." Said Dewey, "Let's give Emil credit for savvy play...and not for making a wild guess."

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Whether it was a stroke of luck or a work of genius, de Leon is certainly happy that he walked away from the puzzle board $45,000 richer. Watch his astonishing victory below:

What would you do if you won that much money? Share your thoughts in the comments below.